


Two-Moth Problem

by herbailiwick



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-21
Updated: 2012-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-04 01:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herbailiwick/pseuds/herbailiwick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mycroft is drawn to John.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two-Moth Problem

There's something different about 221B Baker Street. There's some order in the chaos Mycroft has come to associate with it. It's a warmer place now, less clinical. Even the tea is better. 

But, no, that's not all, is there? There's something warmer about Sherlock too. He's less wired and more alive, in an oddly human way that he probably hates himself for but is too distracted by how nice friendship feels to give the danger a proper rat's arse. 

Mycroft can remember a lifetime of items he's longed for, talents he'd beg for if he could, the handsome face his brother does little with but manipulate people for information. And that was when things had always been the same; now there's been a change, a change with a middle name and a worn jumper. Something new is in the mix. Something he truly envies Sherlock for.

He was very wrong about Sherlock's ability to have a friend. He'd call John Watson a powerful force in interpersonal relationship-building, but it's not quite that way for Sherlock, really. It's, and he hates to think of it this way, all about chemistry. Sherlock is the one interested in chemicals rather than force. The force analogy may still work when it comes to Mycroft, though.

Mycroft had thought nothing could change his brother so drastically, but that thing, that force, that one half of a chemical reaction with a walking stick, is short and doesn't take any shit from anyone and has large, expressive eyes. And he's amazing. He's polished Sherlock. He's soaked up some of his negativity and then done God knows what with it. And Sherlock has brought excitement to a life that, if left to its own devices, would be incredibly normal. But John H. Watson doesn't like normal anymore; the war saw to that. He just doesn't know how to find interesting things on his own, much in the same way Sherlock can't create interpersonal chemistry with a skull. 

Mycroft has held John's hand. The man is stronger than he'd expected, a pillar of strength and glorious stupidity. John Watson makes Mycroft want to giggle and tell secrets, makes him want to send out the car when not necessary, makes him want to pop around as often as he can regardless of violent violinists or eyeballs in the fridge.

It scares him, really, how one man, when Sherlock would chalk it all up to chemistry, can affect him so. On the surface, John Watson should be found dull, perhaps even lacking. But he's not. The hope he's given Sherlock makes Mycroft hope as well. It could be good for Mycroft, John's genuine ability to accept and care for Sherlock, but it could also be incredibly painful.

Mycroft is drawn like a naive moth to a flame that's being drawn to another moth entirely.

John and Mycroft understand force more than they do scientific experimentation. They understand tact and tea and a proper meal and a good night's rest. They understand Sherlock, what it's like to care for someone who makes them pay for the privilege in ways that shouldn't matter but do. 

But things come so easy for John, in a way they often come easy for Sherlock. Mycroft is not charming. Mycroft is content with what approaches him, and they are adventurers in curiosity. Mycroft wouldn't make it as a consulting detective, and he certainly wouldn't make it as a soldier. 

Mycroft is powerful, but he's not very interesting, for all he tries. He's not sure what he'd do if the flame pinned the two moths to a board and decided that the quieter, duller, fatter one was lacking. 

He's never been one to stand too close to fire. Until now.


End file.
